I am not skilled to understand

I’m writing this week’s “praise interruption” on a day when suffering’s earthly storms are howling on multiple fronts. Screaming at me, to the point of overwhelm. Are you having “one of those days” too? Perhaps, like me, we could recount many days, weeks, and years of storms.

But sometimes, when we wallow in recounting past and current sufferings, our thoughts can quickly become the misery of “my suffering is unfair.” We wrestle as Job did:

God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me…He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths…He has stripped from me my glory…He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone (Job 19:6-10 ESV).

Let’s both remember that our trustworthy, eternally existent, perfectly loving, always-good and just God, “the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind,” just before He abundantly restored Job’s earthly life” (Job 38:1 ESV).

Oh my.

He’s answering us too, out of the whirlwinds and storms, beloved in Christ. For we merely human mortals simply cannot possess God’s vast wisdom in the zillions of details of all of history and life as we know and experience it.

If you’re like me (and Job), your heart needs a “praise interruption” today too.

I am not skilled to understand

I am not skilled to understand
what God has willed, what God has planned.

(“I AM NOT SKILLED TO UNDERSTAND,” GREENWELL, D., 1873)

Who has put wisdom in the inmost parts or given understanding to the mind? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place (Job 38:36, 18, 12 ESV)?

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable (Ps. 145:3 ESV).

God’s will, God’s plan…centered on Jesus Christ

Beloved in Christ, Who actually experienced all of Job’s cries in chapter 19? Whose glory was indeed stripped away? Who was truly broken down on every side? Who literally experienced complete darkness when God did indeed put him in the wrong and closed his net about Him, as He hung on the cross?

For you and for me?

I take him at his word indeed:

“Christ died for sinners,” this I read.

Selah.

Our Father who art in heaven,

I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted…I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me…therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:2-3, 5 ESV).

for in my heart I find a need
of him to be my Savior!

In him we have redemption through his blood, 

the forgiveness of our trespasses,

according to the riches of his grace,

which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight

making known to us the mystery of his will,

according to his purpose,

which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time,

to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth (Eph. 1:7-10 ESV).

That he should leave his place on high and come for sinful man to die,

you count it strange?

So once did I, before I knew my Savior!

I am not skilled to understand my earthly suffering, but, like Job, I know my Redeemer lives!

I only know that at his right hand
is One who is my Savior!

[God] has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:13-14 ESV)!

I need You, Lord, when the dark storms threaten

What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, 

according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand 

in the heavenly places, 

far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, 

and above every name that is named, 

not only in this age but also in the one to come (Eph. 1:19-21 ESV).

And oh, that he fulfilled may see the travail of his soul in me…

For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too (2 Cor. 1:5 ESV).

and with his work contented be,

as I with my dear Savior!

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content…the secret of facing…abundance and need…I can do all things through him who strengthens me (Phil. 4:11-13 ESV).

Yes, living, dying,

let me bring my strength, my solace

from this spring:

But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13 ESV).

that he who lives to be my King once died to be my Savior.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you (1 Pet. 5:10 ESV).

I am not skilled to understand, so please remind me of Your gospel plan and my hope in Christ, into my suffering storms

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father…that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…

to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:14, 16, 19 ESV).

Material adapted from Singing the Gospel to Job: Finding Hope in Suffering, Lauri A. Hogle, © 2022

Singing to Jesus, when our hearts need reminders as we suffer

Our magnificent God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has settled my heart as I write this. The storms will likely rage all day long and for many days to come, as much as I understand with human wisdom about my circumstances. But praise God! He has righted my thinking and emotions once again with His Word, calmed and filled with awe and wonder of His glorious love story and perfect plan, that He would include me in that story.

It’s time to sing to Jesus and sing the gospel to my heart into today’s suffering.

You see, I made this week’s playlist gift for you, weeks ago! By God’s providential gift of grace, He’s been carrying and holding me with its songs through tornado-like storms of new trauma. What a compassionate and mighty God who knows our needs and meets us right there, in the storms!

Would you like to join me in being carried through storms with Christ-exalting, gospel-centered, Scriptural songs? If so, sign up below and it will come to your email as I walk alongside you in prayer.

Or perhaps you’d prefer other resources below. Praying for you, sister in Christ. Our Redeemer lives!